PITTSFIELD -- It's official: Massachusetts residents will vote in November on whether to decriminalize minor possession of marijuana, and William T. Breault of Worcester is out to see that they vote "no." Breault, an activist who heads up the Main South Alliance for Public Safety, said citizens have an obligation to get educated about the issue. He accuses the decriminalization advocates of using "deceptive tactics" to gain voter support. The Boston-based group behind the referendum vote, the Committee for a Sensible Marijuana Policy, has received certification of its 13,481 signatures gathered to bring the issue to voters, and is now awaiting its ballot number designation from the Secretary of State's office, said spokeswoman Whitney Taylor. [continues 661 words]
A number of controversial cases from the 2004 Great Barrington drug investigation will reach the courts in 2006. Following a months-long investigation into drug sales in and around the Taconic parking lot in early and mid-2004, 19 people were charged with drug violations, and 13 still have cases pending in Berkshire Superior Court. Berkshire District Attorney David A. Capeless has pledged to enforce the state's controversial drug-free school-zone law, which mandates jail sentences even for first-time offenders. All of the remaining 13 defendants face school-zone charges. [continues 246 words]
High-Tech Monitors Aid Probation Officers Find yourself on probation, and you might be accessorized with an electronic ankle bracelet that transmits a signal to a remote computer. If you leave home against orders, an alert goes to a Springfield monitoring center -- or to Boston if it's after business hours -- and a message is relayed to your probation officer. There is a good chance that the officer will seek a warrant for your arrest. The ankle bracelet has been around since April 2001. But the modern world of tracking those who have strayed from law and order has more electronic gadgetry to boost supervision. [continues 1137 words]
Drug Trials Set For This Month GREAT BARRINGTON - Two more South County defendants facing drug sale and school-zone charges, in connection with last year's drug investigation in Great Barrington, are scheduled for trial this month in Berkshire Superior Court. Mitchell Lawrence, 18, of Otis, is facing a single charge of selling marijuana to an undercover police officer, one count of selling drugs in a school zone and one count of marijuana possession. Lawrence, in a pre-trial motion in July, delivered an affidavit to the court stating that while working undercover, Officer Felix Aguirre bought alcoholic beverages and smoked marijuana with young people during the Taconic parking lot investigation in the summer of 2004. [continues 606 words]
Hearings Set In Marijuana Cases SHEFFIELD - Four students at Mount Everett Regional School will be summoned to court for hearings on whether they should be charged with marijuana possession following an Oct. 10 investigation by school officials. Police Chief James McGarry said the students - all juveniles whose names have not been released - each had small quantities of marijuana, totaling a tenth of an ounce. Police were notified by school officials, who discovered the students in possession of drugs. The school has taken disciplinary action against the students, McGarry said. [continues 129 words]
GREAT BARRINGTON - On the topic of punishment for 16 South County young people facing two years in jail for first-time drug offenses, Selectman Peter L. Fish is out on a limb among his board colleagues. Fish, at the board's meeting this week, went on record to say that, because the first of the Taconic parking lot drug cases ended with an acquittal in Berkshire Superior Court, District Attorney David F. Capeless would have a better chance of conviction - and punishment - - with reduced charges against those awaiting trial. [continues 473 words]
PITTSFIELD - The school-zone drug-dealing case against Kyle Sawin of Otis, whose first court case ended with a hung jury in July, will begin today with jury selection for the new trial in Superior Court. After the mistrial, District Attorney David F. Capeless said he intended to retry during the September session. Sawin's case is one of several that have sparked a prolonged critique of Capeless. Judge John A. Agostini, who presided over the original trial, will hear the case again. [continues 376 words]
Former Police Officer Circulating Petition In Support Of DA's Stance GREAT BARRINGTON - John Beckwith, a former Great Barrington police officer and selectman, is circulating a petition in support of District Attorney David Capeless' adherence to the school-zone drug law in prosecuting drug cases. "This is to support the DA, who said in his campaign he'll support drug laws and that's what he's doing," said Beckwith, who took a strong stance on law and order issues as a selectman. "This is a way of telling him he's doing what's right, and keep up the good work. ... This is a way of letting the DA know there are people who support this." [continues 504 words]
Lawmaker Opposes Mandatory 2-Year School-Zone State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, his interest raised by the Great Barrington school-zone drug charges lodged against 17 young people last year, is working on an amendment that would eliminate the law's two-year mandatory minimum jail term for first-time offenders. The public debate over the issue has brought the issue to his attention, said the Lenox Democrat. "There are a lot of young people who have gone to jail for two years without a lot of community outcry, and these (Great Barrington) cases have brought this to my attention," he said. "It's now on my radar screen. We're thinking about it." [continues 868 words]
PITTSFIELD -- The mistrial in the case of accused drug dealer Kyle W. Sawin has left questions about the jury's deadlock and speculation over how 16 other Great Barrington drug-sting cases will proceed through the legal system. On one point defense lawyers agree: District Attorney David F. Capeless is politically and legally motivated to retry 18-year-old Kyle W. Sawin, whose case ended with a hung jury amid defense claims of entrapment and harassment. Capeless also is unlikely to negotiate any other defendants' school-zone charges, they agree. [continues 763 words]
Jury To Continue Deliberations In Teen's Case Today PITTSFIELD -- Kyle W. Sawin's future was in the hands of a jury at day's end yesterday, in a Superior Court drug distribution and school-zone case that has sparked emotional and political debate over mandatory minimum jail terms for small-time drug sellers with no prior convictions. Six men and six women retired to the jury deliberation room at 12:30 p.m. yesterday, after hearing closing arguments from the defense and prosecution, who sought to attack each other's evidence and boost their own witnesses' credibility. [continues 980 words]
PITTSFIELD -- Hoping to have their own school-zone drug charges dropped in exchange for testimony against Kyle W. Sawin, two of his friends took the witness stand in Superior Court yesterday to say that Sawin was a key drug dealer in Great Barrington last year. The testimony of John Rybacki, 18, and Justin Cronin, 19, both former classmates of Sawin at Monument Mountain High School, testified that they bought marijuana at various times from Sawin in the high school parking lot, at the Price Chopper parking lot, at the Cumberland Farms store, Friendly's, Kmart, or at Lake Mansfield. [continues 844 words]
PITTSFIELD -- Amid legal jostling over witnesses' Fifth Amendment rights, the defense began presenting its case yesterday in the trial of a Great Barrington teenager accused of selling marijuana in a school zone. Defense attorney Judith Knight, who represents 18-year-old Kyle Sawin, called the defendant's former girlfriend, 17-year-old Amanda Seavey, to the witness stand to describe her visits with Sawin to the Taconic Lumber parking lot area last summer. At the time, the parking lot was being secretly scoured by surveillance officers and an undercover police officer during a drug sweep that netted 18 people. Sawin is one of seven teens with no prior record who face a mandatory two-year sentence in jail for allegedly selling small amounts of marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school. [continues 941 words]
PITTSFIELD -- The undercover officer who has been accused of illicit conduct during a summer-long drug investigation in Great Barrington described yesterday how "Jose," his adopted persona, eased into an open-air, daylight drug culture, where merchandise was plentiful and few questions were asked. "They rarely asked (about me); in Pittsfield, they always asked," said Felix Aguirre, 29, who is employed by the Pittsfield Police Department but was assigned last summer to the Berkshire County Drug Task Force's Great Barrington investigation. [continues 838 words]
PITTSFIELD -- The prosecution in the case of an Otis teen accused of selling drugs in a Great Barrington school zone, one of 17 cases in which young people are facing mandatory jail time, rested yesterday with a final effort by the defense to discredit the case's key police witness. Officer Felix Aguirre, on redirect examination by Prosecutor Richard Locke, repeatedly stated that Kyle Sawin, 18, appeared calm, easygoing and sober when he made his daylight deals to sell small bags on three occasions last summer in and around the Taconic Lumber parking lot. [continues 830 words]
PITTSFIELD -- On a single day last Oct. 27, land surveyor Eugene Galvagni Jr. was guided by an undercover police officer to at least 17 spots in and around the Taconic parking lot area in Great Barrington, where drugs and money had swapped hands during the prior summer. Galvagni hammered nails into the ground to mark locations that undercover investigator Felix Aguirre had pinpointed as the site of drug deals he had made with 17 young people. Where nails didn't work, Galvagni used paint to mark the spots. [continues 927 words]
PITTSFIELD -- The first jury trial in connection with last year's Great Barrington drug sweep -- which could result in at least two years of jail for a number of teens under a mandatory sentencing law - -- stalled temporarily yesterday when the pool of jurors ran dry. From a pool of about 50, 12 jurors were seated in Berkshire Superior Court to hear the case of 18-year-old Kyle Sawin of Otis, who is facing three charges of marijuana distribution and three charges of selling drugs within a school zone. Jury selection will continue today with the selection of two more jurors to hear the case; typically 12 jurors and two alternates are seated for jury trials. Eighteen people were indicted after the drug sweep in Great Barrington last year. Sawin is one of seven defendants whose cause has been championed by a grass-roots group known as Concerned Citizens for Appropriate Justice. The group says mandatory sentencing for a school-zone violation is particularly harsh for teenagers with no prior records who are accused of selling small amounts of marijuana. Though testimony did not get under way yesterday, defense attorney Judith Knight, during pretrial motions before Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini, indicated she will show that Sawin was a victim of entrapment, a vulnerable teen with a drug problem. She indicated Sawin would not have sold drugs were it not for the persistent overtures of undercover officer Felix Aguirre, who Knight said smoked marijuana with some of the young people he was doing business with to curry favor. Knight's strategy means that she has the burden of proof in showing that Sawin was entrapped by police and that he was not predisposed to selling drugs; the prosecution can respond by attempting to show that Sawin was, in fact, prone to drug dealing. Her entrapment defense will include testimony from several witnesses who will first undergo "voir dire" questioning, without the jury present, before they testify for jurors. A key witness, Knight indicated, is a substance abuse and addiction counselor who was working with Sawin before, during and after the drug investigation carried out by the Berkshire County Drug Task Force. Knight told Agostini that counselor Maro Hall of the Brien Center would testify to Sawin's vulnerability and susceptibility to the overtures of Aguirre. But whether Hall will make it to the witness stand was in question yesterday during pretrial discussions. The lawyers were in dispute over whether Knight had given proper notification to the district attorney's office regarding Hall's testimony and whether she was being called specifically as an expert witness. Knight said she had given proper notification, but Assistant District Attorney Richard M. Locke disagreed, and the matter was left undecided when the arguments concluded yesterday. [continues 536 words]
PITTSFIELD -- Jury selection begins Tuesday for the first of 16 defendants facing Superior Court trials in connection with a Great Barrington drug-dealing sting that has galvanized grass-roots opposition to District Attorney David A. Capeless' prosecution tactics. Kyle Sawin, 18, of Otis is facing three charges of selling marijuana to an undercover police officer, plus three more serious charges of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school zone. About seven grams of marijuana allegedly changed hands between Sawin and an undercover police officer on three occasions in the Taconic parking lot area off Main Street. [continues 541 words]
GREAT BARRINGTON -- Area citizens who have urged District Attorney David F. Capeless to drop school-zone drug charges pending against seven people arrested in last year's undercover sting have sharpened their attack. Members of Concerned Citizens for Appropriate Justice teamed up yesterday with the director of the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts at the Triplex Cinema -- overlooking the parking lot that was the focus of an eight-month investigation -- to chastise Capeless for his decision to pursue school-zone charges that carry mandatory jail time of two years. [continues 968 words]
